EV Battery Design Challenges Tackled by ANSYS CAE

By participating in a government initiative aimed at leveraging advanced simulation software, ANSYS is joining the legions of scientists, engineers, and startups trying to advance electric and hybrid vehicle technology designs.

General Motors has awarded ANSYS a subcontract to incorporate new and current battery models into its CAE software to shorten design cycles and address some of the key challenges hampering EV battery development, including cost, service life, capacity (energy storage per unit mass and volume), safety, and operating temperature.

Our own Chuck Murray has been adeptly reporting on the setbacks that have plagued EV battery development, from spontaneous fires to product recalls, not to mention the consistent accusations by market watchers of exorbitant pricing. As Chuck reports, given the complexity of the technology, the reality is that EV battery development is "just hard, slow work."

One of the challenges the ANSYS CAE battery models can address is designingEV battery pack cooling flow paths.

Through this partnership, ANSYS and a host of other players are hoping to crack the code on some of the core challenges and accelerate an onerous and painstakingly slow development cycle. The US Department of Energy initiated the Computer Aided Engineering for Electric Drive Vehicle Batteries (CAEBAT) program in 2010 because design and simulation tools were lacking in functionality in this area and thus were not as widely adopted for battery development as they are for more conventional vehicle components.

GM, the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), and ESim have been working to leverage engineering simulation technology to optimize EV and hybrid battery performance. The automaker brought in ANSYS to serve as one of the teams developing battery models.

The CAEBAT program is intended to incorporate new and current models into a battery design software suite. Lewis Collins, development director at ANSYS, told us that a variety of teams are working on battery models at several dimensional levels or "scales," and there is an open architecture being mapped out with an eye toward making the models interoperable.

Beth, this is encouraging news. The application of CAE to this problem in a very targeted way should help in the development of new and better products. ANSYS has a lot of experience in related areas. Are there other CAE vendors involved?

@Naperlou: Good question. My guess is there must be many more CAE packages and capabilities involved, even some homegrown stuff that is specific to the EV battery problem. I think ANSYS sees this area as a big opportunity and is thus staking out some turf and aligning with partners to dig deep on the research.

When I started reading this story, I assumed I would be reading about thermodynamic modeling of the battery pack. I'm pleasantly surprised to see thow much of the mlecular performance can be modeled by CAE, all the way down to the lithium ion transport. Great story, Beth.

Virtual Reality (VR) headsets are getting ready to explode onto the market and it appears all the heavy tech companies are trying to out-develop one another with better features than their competition. Fledgling start-up Vrvana has joined the fray.

A Tokyo company, Miraisens Inc., has unveiled a device that allows users to move virtual 3D objects around and "feel" them via a vibration sensor. The device has many applications within the gaming, medical, and 3D-printing industries.

While every company might have their own solution for PLM, Aras Innovator 10 intends to make PLM easier for all company sizes through its customization. The program is also not resource intensive, which allows it to be appropriated for any use. Some have even linked it to the Raspberry Pi.

solidThinking updated its Inspire program with a multitude of features to expedite the conception and prototype process. The latest version lets users blend design with engineering and manufacturing constraints to produce the cheapest, most efficient design before production.

Focus on Fundamentals consists of 45-minute on-line classes that cover a host of technologies. You learn without leaving the comfort of your desk. All classes are taught by subject-matter experts and all are archived. So if you can't attend live, attend at your convenience.